This business about paraphonic makes me wonder if this couldn’t operate like a Pearl Syncussion, Fors Dyad, or DFAM (which I admittedly know less about)?
AFAIK the Syncussion is just externally triggered. Fors Dyad seems to be all about inter-voice modulation, some of which would be possible on Queen Elmyra (although it’s obviously not your regular drum synth). If you’re looking for something DFAM-like, which relies heavily on parameter changes per step, Scrooge would be worth a look. And btw I’ve been known to have uttered the words “King Scrooge” before, make of that what you will.
There’s also an arpeggio mode on the new Cyma Forma that staggers across voices, which I think is pretty novel…
I haven’t looked into it, but is it round-robin? If so, that exists on the Vermona PerFourmer, Korg Mono/Poly, Akai Timbre Wolf, and will certainly be available on Queen Elmyra.
I’ll keep a lid on my Scrooge theories for now, they’re too intriguing to get wrong
That said, how’s the build quality for the Queen? Do you think someone could count on it in a somewhat uncontrolled performance venue? Are screws gonna loosen inadvertently? Is it going to feel as sturdy as a stomp pedal? Will it be ruggedised, or will it have a similar lightness as the Elmyra 2?
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It’s pretty sturdy and has some weight to it. Much more hefty than Elmyra 2, even when accounting for the bigger size. The panel wraps around to the front and back, and it’s 1.5 mm steel, which is more or less the default for many brand name synths. (We’ve thought about 2 mm, but opted against it in the name of sustainability, and there’s really no need to make it any more sturdy.) It’s attached with 6 screws, 3 on each side, and I don’t believe those would come loose. All sockets and metal potentiometers are secured with nuts against the front panel (instead of using threadless sockets), so plugging or unplugging cables won’t bend the PCB beneath, and neither will bumping into a pot. The massive amount of UI elements also obviously adds to the total weight.
Many synths have full metal enclosures. We went for a bamboo bottom part, also for sustainability reasons (and vibes). It’s basically U-shaped (so the sides and bottom), and quite thick. Think of a bamboo cutting board you’d use in your kitchen. This gives it a slightly different feel from, say, your Elektron boxes, but that is not to say lower in quality or weight. The bamboo is pretty massive and probably weighs around the same as or more than a metal bottom plate.
Pedals are usually cast metal, not sheet metal, which makes sense, because they suffer much greater abuse by feet. So it doesn’t really feel like a pedal.
But here are some synths I know well that I’d rate to be comparable to the Queen in build and sturdiness: Peak, Summit, Sub37, Perfourmer, Pro-2, Prophet reissue. Maybe you know one or some of them. Otherwise feel free to name some that you know, and I may be able to compare. Hope this helps!
That helps plenty!
I dare say bamboo weighs in as a very durable material. Bicycle handlebars take turbulent impact and protect ligaments. Cutting boards won’t warp the way a wooden board does. Kudos for making a sustainable decision.
I wish I had more hands on experience with any of those synths, nonetheless I’ve certainly witnessed them in many stage settings.
I did look up the arpeggio on the Alt. It’s more like a sequencer, although there are now 4 different MIDI modes.
It’s a matrix destination, the only one without its own direct knob or fader, that uses the source modulation amplitude levels to trigger voices in different orders. Divisions are contingent on the mod frequency.
Because I’m entirely green when it comes to modular and semi-modular, perhaps any community member could jump in here:
There’s no distinct external audio in port, but from what you’ve shared, @nyppy, there are plenty junctions that can receive signal and won’t ask questions as to where it came from.
That said, what I’m really wondering is if EXT Audio can be used as an OSC source, not unlike noise, whereby it’s subject to the envelopes, processed through the filter, sent out through fx, by which those stages can be modulated and the like?
Not exactly a modular/carrier scenario, just a sound source
Are the voice inputs, for example, going to treat audio signal as CV, or is there a path in which ext audio can be heard and played/gated? Or is audio signal just privy to the fx section? Which connections will treat fluctuations in audio as CV signal?
You can send external audio into the distortion, the main filter, and the main FX. If you want to mix external audio with what’s coming from the internal voices before going through the distortion/filter/FX chain, you can simply use the mix output: It will carry the sum of the internal voices, you can add your external audio either using any mixer/suitable module, or even just a passive mult (a couple will be included with Queen Elmyra) if your audio source has an output series resistor (by far most do nowadays). Then patch the result into the distortion to go through the chain normally.
Having external audio affected by an envelope would not work: The envelopes are analog, and they’re sent into the digital core, where you have the digital VCA. This core doesn’t have any ADCs to record external audio. The FX section resides on a separate core, and that one does have ADCs, so it’s feasible to make an “envelope” effect, where you could patch an ENV out into one of the FX CTL sockets, and apply that envelope to the audio. Not sure how universally useful that would be, but it’d be very easy to implement if there’s any interest.
The voice inputs are for GATE (which is not just on/off, but gradual, so the ENV control will basically apply a slew rate limiter to the input), PAN (stereo panning), CTL1, CTL2 (which are the controls for the per-voice effects) and WAV (the wavetable position). None of these are suitable for audio, as the ADCs used to read them are slower. They do go into the audio range, so you can do some interesting FM-like stuff, but it won’t reproduce high frequencies with good fidelity.
All CV inputs will accept audio, and the analog ones (distortion/main filter) can be used for analog FM, and will faithfully reproduce the effect of the modulator signal at the output. All digital ones are subject to the ADC sampling rate, so while FM is possible, some restrictions apply for high frequencies.
